KCRag Forum

Discuss items in the urban core outside of Downtown as described above. Everything in the core including the east side (18th & Vine area), Plaza, Westport, Brookside, Valentine, Waldo, 39th street, & the entire midtown area.

TheBigChuckbowski wrote:Has there been a more complete transformation of a corridor in KC in such a short period of time (assuming all of these projects get built)?

The Sprint Center/P&L District/H&R Block/AMC Main St was probably a bigger transformation (although may not qualify as a "corridor").

But along with that group of developments, and the streetcar phases I and II, I think these developments (and in particular Mac's Armour and Troost proposal) have the opportunity to be some of the most significant and transformative developments in the city in recent history. This may not be as flashy as a Downtown skyscraper, but I think it will be more important for the city.

There still could be some roadblocks. Maybe everything won't get built as planned. It might be difficult to rent out the apartments and retail spaces. It is inevitable that there will be some crime around these developments - but how significant/newsworthy will it be and will there be any appearances that criminals are targeting these new developments? How much public backlash against gentrification will we see? Will derelict property owners on Troost and the areas just to the east sell their properties, or will they continue to hold on and wait for values to get even higher?

While questions and obstacles remain, I'm optimistic that we will see a drastic transformation over the next few years. It will still be tough to erase the Troost stigma from many peoples' minds, but anything that can be done to blur the dividing line will have huge ramifications for the city, East and West.

Any update on the plans for Linwood and Troost? John Hoffman came out and announced plans a while back (although I don't think there were any renderings), but I heard that he was very premature in doing so and he hadn't even been selected yet by PIEA (which owns the properties).

Yeah, the old Katz. When I walked through, parts of the roof were on the floor and parts of the floor were in the basement. And the basement was full of water. It's a little surprising that it hasn't collapsed yet. Most of the roof framing was rusted out and you could see from the outside that one of the air handlers was sinking though the roof.

Hoffman has the RFP on those corners. I think they're sorting out issues with their financing of the project.

There is. From what I understand, the previous owners have been foreclosed upon, and the new owners wanted to board up the buildings to prevent vandalism. I'm not sure how concerned they should be, as the buildings have stood essentially vacant for years.

Ruby Jean's Juicery on Troost opened this Saturday. I went and checked it out today. This is going to be a great addition to Troost.

Urban Cafe was a great addition earlier this year and Ruby Jean's may be an ever bigger deal, especially in it's ability to bring people to Troost who might otherwise avoid it. The space is really nice, but my one complaint is with the high, wooden ceilings and concrete floors, whenever they ran the smoothie machine, it was incredibly loud. Otherwise, it would be a great space to hang out.

KCtoBrooklyn wrote:Ruby Jean's Juicery on Troost opened this Saturday. I went and checked it out today. This is going to be a great addition to Troost.

Urban Cafe was a great addition earlier this year and Ruby Jean's may be an ever bigger deal, especially in it's ability to bring people to Troost who might otherwise avoid it. The space is really nice, but my one complaint is with the high, wooden ceilings and concrete floors, whenever they ran the smoothie machine, it was incredibly loud. Otherwise, it would be a great space to hang out.

They’re also businesses owned by black Kansas Citians which is awesome and should shut up some of the knee-jerk reactions against “gentrification”.

KCtoBrooklyn wrote:Any update on the plans for Linwood and Troost? John Hoffman came out and announced plans a while back (although I don't think there were any renderings), but I heard that he was very premature in doing so and he hadn't even been selected yet by PIEA (which owns the properties).

This looks like it has legs again. Latest proposal is for 60-80 units in the SW corner with a retail component. DRAW are the architects, which is good news.

The renovation of the Xavier School at 53rd and Troost goes to CPC next week. It’s a historic tax credit renovation that converts the school into a dorm, and it looks like 95% of the issues with the neighborhood about parking, traffic, etc, have been sorted out. IIRC it has 100 beds and 80 parking spaces.

Any interesting project with 6 apartment units has shown up in the Development Tracker off the NW corner of 44th and Troost, going behind the house that is there now.

It looks like what is now a large garage is going to be expanded to a 3 story building with 5 units and a new garage with 1 more unit will be built.

This is what used to be on the site where the new garage w/1 unit will go. It came down between 2011 and 2012. I don't even remember this building or seeing it come down, but it seems like an unfortunate loss:

While I like the addition of 6 units and I think the conversion of the current garage into a small apartment building is a good idea, I think putting a garage entrance on Troost is terrible idea, especially seeing what was once there.